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Cormac Breatnach, born in Co. Dublin, is a flute and whistle player, formerly a member of the mould-breaking group Meristem in the late eighties, and then with the jazz-fusion Deiseal. He has played and recorded with in Donal Lunny's exploratory ensembles, features on an album with Meristem, is lead instrumentalist on Deiseal's albums, features on both Riverdance and River of Sound albums, and has played for drama, television and film (Moondance, War of the Buttons, Secret of Roan Inish). He has done Irish translation work for IMRO, the Irish Music Rights Organisation, and has a solo album Musical Journey (1999).

Liz Doherty is from Buncrana, Co. Donegal. A fiddle player, she lectures in Irish Traditional music at University College Cork. An Honours music graduate of that college, her PhD dissertation from there dealt with Cape Breton Traditional fiddle music. She has played fiddle and recorded with the innovative Cork-based band Nomos, is currently a member of the group Bumblebees, and has a solo recording due for release in August, 1999. She is editor of the complete Capt. Francis O'Neill collection of Irish dance music, due for publication by Ossian in 1999.

Colin Hamilton, born in Belfast, and living now in Coolea, Co. Cork, is a flute player and maker, singer, researcher and writer who has pioneered the development of the wooden flute as presently used in Traditional music. An Ethnomusicology MA graduate of Queen's University, Belfast, he studied under John Blacking. He has a solo album of flute music, and produced in 1990 The Irish Flute Player's Handbook, an exhaustive treatise on the flute in Irish music. His UCC PhD thesis (1996) is Commercial recordings of Traditional Irish music, he was a visiting Fulbright scholar at UCLA in 1995, has given numerous conference papers, and his book A Social History of Traditional Music in Ireland is due for publication in 2000.

Eithne Vallely is a fiddle player and teacher, born in Lifford, Co. Donegal, now living in Armagh. She is an BA graduate of University College Dublin in Celtic Studies, H. Dip. Ed (UCD), and has a Dip. Ed. (Queens, Belfast). Formerly a teacher of Music and Irish in St. Louis' Convent, Monaghan, she was teacher of Irish in St. Patrick's CBS in Armagh from 1975-89. From 1989-94 she taught music and was head of Creative Arts in St. Patrick's College, Armagh. She is a founder member of the teaching-based Armagh Pipers' Club, has taught instruments with it weekly since 1969, is the author of its fiddle tutor and singing-instruction books, and is joint author of its best-selling tin-whistle tutors.

Fintan Vallely is from Co. Armagh and has lived in Dublin since 1968. A writer and musician, he has recorded two flute albums (1985, 1992) and one of satirical song (1988). He is author of the Traditional flute tutor Timber (1986), major contributor to The Blooming Meadows (Townhouse, 1998), editor of Cork University Press's Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999). He holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from Queen's University, Belfast (1993), was The Irish Times' Traditional music corr. from 1994-98, writes for music and other journals and has a weekly column with The Sunday Tribune. He lectures in Traditional Irish and International Folk Musics at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra.

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